The Computer Science Team from Bob Jones High School recently entered the 31st annual American Computer Science League (ACSL) International All-Star competition.

Bob Jones students Charles Boyd, Luc Burhop, Eric Dong, Brady Ford, Bridges Penn, Mark Reuter and Martin Wang traveled to Philadelphia, Penn. for the contest. Sponsor and Bob Jones teacher Jennifer Rountree organized the trip.

Schools competed from across the United States and countries such as Canada, Croatia, England and Romania.

“To qualify for this prestigious event, the students must compete against other schools at their level during four regular season contests,” she said. From these four events, the top-scoring schools were invited to participate in the all-star competition.

This year marks the tenth time that teams from Bob Jones have qualified. “It’s the eighth time to actually make the trip to the all-star contest,” Rountree said.

The Madison teenagers embraced the challenge to compete with schools that focus primarily on computer science, mathematics and other sciences. “It is also a wonderful opportunity to network with people from all across the world,” Rountree said.

ACSL has organized programming contests for 34 years. The National Association of Secondary School Principals recognizes ACSL on its approved activities list (acsl.org).

In addition to American Computer Science League contests, the Bob Jones team participates in the Alabama Council for Technology in Education (ACTE) regional and state team programming challenge.

The Bob Jones team won first and second places at the regional level and then took first place at the state competition. Charles Boyd placed first in individual programming projects at the state ACTE contest.

To join the intermediate team, a Bob Jones student must have completed C Programming or C Programming Accelerated with a B average or higher. For the senior team, students must have completed two programming courses with B or higher averages.

“All of our team members are very serious about programming,” Rountree said. “They plan to pursue degrees either in computer science or some type of engineering.”